In today's fast-paced world, many people require increasing organization within their personal lives to ensure that tasks are done, appointments are kept and to generally remind them of the various things that are and will be occurring in their lives. To this end, devices such as calendars and clocks have been developed to help remind people of the time and the various events that occur in their lives.
Canadian patent 1,277,834 issued on Dec. 18, 1990 to Hoyeck discloses a multi-perpetual calendar. In one embodiment, a circular disc is divided into seven areas representing the days of the week and each of these is subdivided concentrically into areas representing days of the month. The circular disc is used in conjunction with another circular disc to give an indication of the day of the week that falls on a particular day in the month. The discs can be laminated to provide a surface on which to write notes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,712 issued on Jan. 5, 1993 to Seiko Epson Corporation, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a calendar display device for a timepiece (a watch) comprising an indicator and a display with each day of the week. While a user of the watch may be able to determine the day of the week, the patent does not disclose a tool for organizing a person's life. The timepiece described in this patent is too crowded with various other indicators and displays to be a simple and effective tool for personal organization. The day of the week display itself is a minor, ancillary portion of the overall watch and must be inspected closely to determine the day of the week. Such a device does not provide easy, at-a-glance day of the week information required by people, particularly elderly people. Furthermore, this device uses seven separate indicators to indicate each day of the week. The driving mechanism for the day of the week indicators is offset from the centre of the day of the week display, which results in some of the mechanism being outside the radius of the day of the week display. The day of the week display and mechanism are designed to be used solely within a device having other displays and indicators associated with it.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,084 issued on Oct. 15, 1991 to B-line AG discloses a clock for planning the sex of a child. The clock has differently marked display sections representing the days of fertility on which conception of a baby is most likely. This device is specifically adapted to an individual and does not have the flexibility to organize a wide variety of events. This device provides a display concerning the days of the month, not concerning the day of the week.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,614 issued on Jan. 3, 1995 to Glazer discloses a device to remind people to take pills. Rotatable dials are manually set to indicate the weekday, date and time for taking a medication. This device is inconvenient as the user must remember to set the date and time on the device and then must use a separate device for determining the actual present date in order to correlate the pill reminder device with the actual day of the week. The device described in this patent is specifically adapted for one purpose and does not provide flexibility for other events.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,562 issued on Aug. 10, 1993 to Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S. A. discloses a timepiece with a second display to indicate the days of the month. An indicator in the second display moves through the days of the month describing an arc of 330 degrees at the end of which the indicator automatically moves back to the starting position. In this way, the indicator always moves back to the day 1 of the after it reaches the last day of the previous month.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,006 issued on Dec. 29, 1998 to Humware discloses a personal activity scheduling system based on software. A variety of activities can be programmed into the system. This patent does not disclose a simple indicator/display system that can be readily accessed at a glance and that requires no knowledge of computers. This system is particularly inconvenient for retired and/or elderly people who require a simple device that does not require specialized knowledge to operate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,369 issued on Jul. 16, 1996 to Wu discloses a desk calendar-clock combination. The desk calendar can be weekly. This device does not have an indicator which automatically points to a day of the week to give a person an instant reminder. This device requires the user to manually flip the calendar pages. If the user forgets to flip the calendar page, the person may get confused as to the day of the week thus defeating the purpose of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,850 issued on Jun. 11, 1991 to Metts et al., discloses a novelty clock for keeping animal time in relation to human time. The clock employs a frequency generator that produces pulses at a rate of sixty pulses per second multiplied by a factor particular for the animal in question to convert the time to the time for the animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,621 issued on Dec. 13, 1988 to Junghans Uhren Gmbh, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a solar powered electric clock. The clockwork is driven by a motor mounted in the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,932 issued on Apr. 26, 1988 to Cephas et al., discloses a desk top swing calendar in combination with a clock. The calendar is monthly and the individual pages of the calendar are manually flipped over a frame on which they rest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,889 issued on Jun. 23, 1987 to IWC International Watch Co. AG discloses a watch with automatic display of the month and the day of the week. The watch includes complicated wheelworks that are adjustable only as a whole, thus, the association of individual displays with each other cannot be changed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,569 issued on Dec. 30, 1986 to Montres Rado S. A. discloses a timepiece with a calendar. The days of the week may be indexed on a rotating disc such that the particular day of the week appears under a transparent zone and is thus visible to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,510 issued on Nov. 11, 1980 to Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. discloses a timepiece with a means for indicating information other than the time, date and day. This timepiece employs a programmable circuit and an electronic memory for storing information about time and date that can be used in combination with a secondary function.
Despite the advances made in the art, there still remains a need for a simple and effective device for helping people organize their lives, especially on a weekly basis. This is particularly true for people who, due to advancing age, loss of visual acuity, loss of short term memory or routine use of prescription drugs, find themselves disoriented regarding time and position in the sequence of events that comprise the metronome of their lives. Clocks and wall calendars furnish some of the required orienting data but are insufficient. A missing essential piece of information is the name of the current day of the week. Importantly, a graphic representation of the progress of the current week is highly desirable to aid the intuition in the process of time location. Permitting access to such information quickly, conveniently and free of embarrassment is a desirable goal, which goal is obtainable by using a simple and highly visible or large device.